It's Been a Long, Long Time
by 221b.homeless.network
Summary: Slight-AU. Post-AWS. When Natasha receives a phone call that an old friend is in the hospital, it kicks off a chain of events, that no one, least of all, Steve and Bucky, could have predicted. Rated M for later chapters. Steve/OC
1. Sestrenka

_Chapter 1. Sestrenka_

It wasn't often that Natasha Romanoff found her thoughts drifting from whatever task was at hand, especially during important discussions such as the dismantling of the remainder of Hydra, but despite the cool mask of quiet concentration on the redhead's face, her mind was far afield from anything the Avengers (minus Thor), plus Sam Wilson and a penitent Bucky Barnes, were saying. This was the latest in a long series of on-going meetings at the newly-christened Avengers Tower and Natasha was reminiscing on how she had gotten to this point. _S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't exist anymore because of me_, she thought wryly. The Russian assassin pondered how she felt about that, if she felt anything at all.

After Clint made a different call when he was sent to kill her all those years ago, S.H.I.E.L.D. had offered her the chance to wipe the red from her ledger and she jumped at it, tired of fighting the KGB's battles. If you had asked her if she would ever help take down the secret organization she would eventually call home, she would have laughed in your face… or shot it, more than likely. S.H.I.E.L.D. became the family she never knew and never knew she wanted, and it was all in due-part because of a select group of talented agents who welcomed her with open arms—well, most of them; maybe not Fury. Regardless, Fury, Coulson, Barton and Kat became the four most important people in her life. Natasha hadn't thought about Kat in a while. The woman who had been her mentor in many ways had disappeared from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar several years ago desperately seeking some time to herself and now, for the first time in a long time, Natasha wondered where she was, if she was all right, if she knew what had happened.

A phone ringing startled her from her thoughts before she realized with concealed abject horror that it was hers. Steve stopped talking and everyone turned to stare at her, but Natasha took it all in stride, wondering who could possibly want to talk to her that wasn't in this room. A glance at the caller ID told her it was a hospital in Washington, D.C. and she frowned. _What could a hospital want with me?_ Stomach clenching with forboding, Natasha looked back up at the table's occupants and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, boys, but I need to take this," and with that, she stood up and walked out of the room for privacy, but not before she heard Tony take offense to her calling them 'boys.'

"Hello?" she answered the phone once the door clicked shut behind her.

A nervous female voice greeted her. "Uh… hi… sorry… this is a bit weird… um… I'm Amy Miller; I'm a nurse here at George Washington University Hospital… is this '_sestrenka'_? I'm calling on behalf of a patient who goes by… err… '_starshaya sestra_'? She refused to give me any real names, but listed this number as her emergency contact."

Natasha stiffened as she listened to the nurse fumble over her words. Just as she was wondering where she was… "This is _sestrenka_," she cut the nurse off, finding the woman's ramblings grating her nerves. "What's happened?"

There was a sigh of relief on the other end. "Oh, thank goodness; I wasn't sure if I'd have any luck since I didn't have your real name; it's all a little fishy to me. Umm… so… umm… _starshaya sestra_ was involved in some kind of… explosion three days ago. She was brought in with numerous injuries—four cracked ribs, a concussion, massive internal bleeding and numerous scrapes and cuts. We had to operate to stop the bleeding, but she's in stable condition now and just woke up a couple of hours ago, which is incredible; I've never seen anything like it. She's certainly a fighter; most people would be in a coma… or worse. Oh, hold on… I was also told to tell you that and I quote 'under no circumstance is Tony to know about this.' Does that mean anything to you? Ummm… Are you still there?"

Natasha let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and struggled to get her next words out. "I'm still here. Thank you for informing me; I'll be there as soon as I can." She didn't give the nurse a chance to respond before hanging up. If her thoughts were drifting before, they were running rampant now. What was going on? Natasha didn't like the feeling of not knowing, but one thing she did know for certain—she need to get to D.C… fast.

Schooling her features, she headed back into the meeting room with a grim determination. The second Natasha entered, all eyes were back on her and the conversation petered out. "Hey, fellas. Hate to do this, but I've just been called to D.C. on an urgent request from Fury," she lied; there was no request from Fury and she most definitely felt no remorse for leaving.

"That was Fury?" Steve intoned dubiously; the man had little trust for the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. these days and certainly didn't like that the super spy still took orders from him.

Natasha nodded. "Barton, Fury said he wanted you with me; we leave now." Clint didn't need to be told twice and stood up immediately and started making his way to the door.

"Hang on," America's golden boy ground out in frustration. "We're having an important discussion on taking down the rest of Hydra; you can't just leave in the middle of it."

"Watch me, Rogers," Natasha bit out. "Besides, hate to break it to you, but we were getting nowhere. It would be better to table this discussion for another day." _Just try and stop me; I'll make you regret it._

"She's got a point, man," Sam chimed in remorsefully. "We're runnin' in circles right now; maybe we should take a break, get our thoughts together."

Steve looked to Bruce and Tony, who had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire exchange, and both seemed to be in agreement with Sam and Natasha. He turned to Bucky, who looked blankly at him from under his dark curtain of hair and shrugged. Well, that was helpful. The Captain sighed and hung his head in defeat. "Fine. We'll continue this discussion later." He turned to Natasha again and gave her a stern look, "And then _you're_ going to tell me exactly what Fury thinks is so important that you need to leave in the middle of a team meeting."

Natasha smirked when a stroke of genius hit her; she really ought to pat herself on the back. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she quipped, "I'll do you one better, Rogers; I'll show you. Bring Bucky with you; you'll both want to see this."

Tony could contain himself no longer as Steve and Bucky started to get up, confused expressions written on their faces, but not about to dismiss a golden opportunity to get information when it was presented to them. "Hey, if we're going on a field trip, I want in."

'_Under no circumstance is Tony to know about this._' The nurse's words weren't lost on Natasha; Tony could _not_ come. "No can do, Stark; you'll draw unwanted attention."

"Oh, what? And he won't?" Tony returned, pointing at the world's first super soldier.

"It doesn't matter, Tony; I can't risk you coming. This relates directly to Steve and Bucky, so I'm throwing them a bone and letting them in on this; Fury will have my head if you come too."

"Oh, don't even get me started on how you're still taking orders from Mad-Eye Moody."

"The answer's still 'no.' Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go. Rogers, Barnes, if you're coming, we leave now. I've already wasted enough time with this pointless conversation," Natasha said coldly and turned to leave the room all lethal grace. Clint gave a nod to the rest of the room's occupants and followed her out the door, Steve and Bucky right behind him.

"Do we know what just happened?" It was the first thing Bruce had said this entire time.

"Nope," the other two replied.

"Okay. Just checking."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>

Russian translation

_Sestrenka_: little sister

_Starshaya sestra_: big sister

Hope you enjoyed! Who could this mysterious Kat be? And what does she have to do with Steve and Bucky? Until next time!


	2. Partner

_Chapter 2. Partner_

Clint Barton was no stranger to the Black Widow's lies, so when Natasha said that Fury wanted them to come in, he knew better than to question her in front of the entire room, even though he knew there was no way it could have been Fury on the phone. The man was off the grid somewhere in Europe, hunting down Hydra, and had no way to contact the agents even if he wanted to.

Unsurprisingly, Steve and Tony both had something to say about him and Natasha leaving, but the Russian wasn't having any of it. That's how he knew something was wrong. He knew Natasha better than anyone, and while to the rest of the team, she seemed her typical self, devoid of emotion, Clint could tell she was barely keeping her emotions in check. _So it's personal…_ he thought, _but what's in D.C.?_

The spy was surprised when Natasha invited the Captain and former Winter Soldier, but did nothing to show it. His long years with S.H.I.E.L.D. taught him to school his features, mask what he was really feeling. It was hard to believe that the agency was now gone. It took everything he had to not become angry with Steve when he heard the organization had been dismantled. He couldn't find it in him to blame Natasha despite the fact that she had been in the thick of it; she had just been swept along for the ride. He understood the necessity of taking down Hydra, but now what were he and Natasha supposed to do? What were the thousands of employees of S.H.I.E.L.D., who now found themselves without a job, going to do? Clint checked himself, fists clenching. _Best to not go down that road._ He stayed silent while Tony whined about being left behind and followed Natasha when she stormed out of the room, Steve and Bucky on his tail.

The assassin was on a warpath as she charged full steam ahead to the elevator bank and Clint jogged to catch up so he might have a word with her in private. He dashed onto elevator and Natasha barked out to the two super soldiers to meet them in the parking garage before the doors closed.

"Jarvis, take us to the parking garage," Clint said quietly, closely examining his partner.

"Right away, Agent Barton," the posh British voice of Stark's A.I. chimed.

"'Tasha."

"It's Kat, Clint," Natasha blurted out, her expression pained. "She's in the hospital, badly injured."

Clint felt his stomach drop and it had nothing to do with the fact that they were on an elevator. "Kat? But we haven't heard from her in years…" Hawkeye knew the woman meant a lot to Natasha; hell, she meant a lot to him too. There was just something about Kat that stuck with you. The last Clint had heard from her, she been spotted in India, having taken a much-needed vacation to get her head straight. After that, she had practically disappeared. _Guess she needed more time than we thought._

"I know, but Clint, the call from the hospital—the nurse was told to call me _sestrenka_."

"Little sister," Clint breathed; it was something that only Kat ever called Natasha.

"Only you and I know that she's the only one who calls me that," Natasha continued. "Whatever is going on, it must be dangerous; she had the nurse tell me not to tell Tony. Kat needs our help, and I'll be damned if I don't do anything, Clint."

"You know I'm with you 100 percent of the way, 'Tasha. Kat's my friend too; I'll put an arrow in the eyeball of anyone that hurts her. Does Kat know about Steve and Bucky?" Natasha shook her head. "Are you going to tell them about Kat?"

Natasha smiled wickedly, her emotions doing a complete 180; it was enough to give Clint whiplash sometimes. "I figured it might make a nice surprise for them."

Clint snorted. "You're unbelievable."

"I know," Natasha smirked. The elevator doors opened and the redhead sauntered off. "They'll thank me for it later."

Clint shook his head as he stepped off the elevator after her where she was already waiting impatiently beside a black armored SUV. A part of Clint wanted to comfort Natasha as she did for him when he was released from Loki's hold before the Battle of New York, but he knew it was neither the time nor the place, and he definitely didn't want to be thinking about Loki anymore. It had taken months for him to scrape through his psych evaluation and even longer for Clint to really come to terms with all that he had done while under the God of Mischief's spell. Scolding himself, Clint forced himself to focus. For the time being, he would treat this as any other mission and right now, he needed to assess the risks. As Natasha had mentioned, the situation must be dangerous if Kat didn't want Tony to know. The woman was a loyal friend to both Clint and Natasha, but was fiercely protective of the genius engineer. _So danger… nothing we haven't dealt with before; I really should have brought my bow…_

As if sensing his thoughts, Natasha started talking again. "Once Rogers and Barnes get here, we'll drive to the airfield where there's a quinjet already being prepared for us. There should be a spare bow on there for you and plenty of weapons to go around. If only the two fossils would hurry up," she finished with a growl.

Right on time, the elevator doors opened to release the good captain and his best friend. "I went and grabbed the uniform since you couldn't wait for us," Steve groused. Bucky stood slightly behind him, stoic as ever.

"It's about time. Get in," was Natasha's only reply.

Once everyone was in the car, Natasha behind the wheel, they took off at a speed that would make Evel Knievel proud. Clint had no problem with the speed at which they were traveling, but he was counting down the seconds before Captain America said something.

"We should probably slow down; we don't want to get pulled over before we get to wherever it is that we're going." There it was.

"Relaaaax, Rogers," Black Widow drawled. "We're doing fine."

"So are you going to tell us what's really going on? Or are you keeping that compartmentalized?" Clint chuckled quietly. He got along with Steve well enough, but he could tell the man was still stinging from being kept in the dark about so many of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets.

"Once we're in the wind, I'll tell you everything you and Barnes need to know," Natasha replied, and with that, everyone fell into a tense silence.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>

Russian translation:

_Sestrenka_: little sister

And here's chapter two! So we know a little more about the mysterious Kat, but what's her connection to Tony? And what isn't Natasha telling Steve and Bucky?


End file.
